Our Professional Team

Beth Gansky is the Executive Director of ACHARAI: Shoshana S. Cardin Jewish Leadership Institute. Before becoming Executive Director in June 2015, Beth had been serving as a leadership coach for both the ACHARAI Fellows Program and Presidents’ Circle. She holds a Leadership Coaching Certification from Georgetown University, a Master of Arts degree in Higher Education Administration from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Binghamton University. Beth is an experienced facilitator and a member of the faculty team of ACCELERATE, a year-long national program for high potential Hillel professionals who aspire to become directors.

Beth helps people bring their best selves to their professional and personal lives. Over the last twenty years, Beth has trained, consulted and coached both volunteer and professional leaders for local and national organizations. In 2012, she launched The Gansky Group, LLC, a consulting practice that specializes in coaching and training, particularly with non-profit organizations. Beth was with Hillel of Greater Baltimore for fourteen years until 2009, as the Executive Director for the last five. She led the decentralization of that regional operation to four self-sustaining Hillel campus foundations and played a significant role in the opening of The Smokler Center at Johns Hopkins University. Beth is also a board member at Camp Ramah in the Poconos where she is chairing their strategic planning process. She is a past board member at Beth Israel Congregation, University of Maryland Hillel, Beth Tfiloh and is a facilitator for the Darrell D. Friedman Institute for Professional Development.

Outside of her professional life, Beth finds great fulfillment as a traveler, cook, reader, theatre patron and mother.

Naami was born and raised in sunny California where she grew up in a home centered on serving the Jewish community. Watching her parents educate and cultivate the next generation of Jewish leaders in Los Angeles, Naami made it an early goal to get involved in Jewish communal work as a professional. Naami received her Bachelors degree in psychology and a Masters degree in leadership studies from Bellevue University. Soon after, Naami quickly became involved with nonprofit organizations, both in California and Israel. She moved to New York where she and her husband, Yanky built a Jewish community at SUNY Albany and engaged over 1,000 Jewish college students while working for Aish HaTorah. Naami planned and led multiple Israel activism trips helping to build the next generation of Jewish leaders. After more than a decade of nonprofit work in Los Angeles, Israel, and New York, Naami set roots in Baltimore with Yanky and their three daughters. She is excited about her role as program director at ACHARAI and the opportunity to work in the heart of the Baltimore Jewish community.